‘A Father’s Secret’: What is ‘Betrayal’ season 2 about and what did Jason Lytton do?

Based on the popular podcast of the same name, the true-crime TV series Betrayal is back next week with season two, entitled A Father’s Secret. The follow-up to summer 2023′s Betrayal: A Perfect Husband, the show’s latest instalment sheds light on another man who turns out not to be the person his wife thought he was.

What is Betrayal season two about?

Announcing the imminent release of Betrayal: A Father’s Secret, creators ABC News Studios said earlier this month: “Season two follows Ashley Lytton, a Utah wife and mother of three, as she unearths her husband Jason’s secret, leaving her fearing for her family’s safety and future.”

In the trailer for Betrayal’s new season, Ashley tells the docuseries’ makers: “We live in a very beautiful place, but sometimes the beauty masks what really is going on.” She adds: “Jason seemed happy. We all just thought the world of him. Everything felt right.”

What happened?

The sequence of events recounted in Betrayal: A Father’s Secret begins in late 2021, at a point when Ashley and Jason had been married for 11 years. They were raising three children: a nine-year-old daughter they had had together, plus Ashley’s two teenagers - a son and a daughter - from a previous relationship.

According to Ashley’s account on the Betrayal podcast, she was at their home in Riverton, Utah, when she received a call from Jason, who was out. Providing her with his iCloud sign-in details, he asked her to set up a Venmo account for him on her computer - before abruptly changing his mind, insistently telling her not to worry about it.

This raised Ashley’s suspicions: why was he suddenly so adamant that she shouldn’t log on to his account? “I knew by the tenor of his voice that he was trying to hide something,” she told the podcast.

In the trailer for Betrayal: A Father’s Secret, Ashley picks up the thread. Having accessed his iCloud, she says, she found a hidden folder. “I opened it, and… I don’t think I can say it, I’m sorry” she says. “I realised that my life will never be the same.”

When is Betrayal: A Father’s Secret released?

A three-part series, season two of Betrayal is due out on the streaming platform Hulu on Tuesday July 30, 2024.

Betrayal: A Father’s Secret - watch the trailer:

What did Jason Lytton do? Details of the case:

What Ashley had found was an extensive collection of sexually-explicit images featuring under-age girls. Speaking on the Betrayal podcast, she recalled: “My first reaction was, ‘That was disgusting, I need a shower. I need to get that off of me.’ But unfortunately you can’t scrub that out of your brain.”

As Jason peppered her with texts begging her to talk to him - “I will get the help I need,” he promised - Ashley called her husband’s brother, who happened to be a police officer. However, her brother-in-law’s reluctance to turn his sibling in became apparent, so Ashley took the matter into her own hands: working with police, she agreed to meet Jason in a Walmart parking lot, where law enforcement would be waiting to take him into custody. He was arrested on some 100 charges of sexual exploitation of a minor.

In a police interview whose recording was shared on the Betrayal podcast, investigators revealed to Ashley that Jason had been in possession of upwards of 1,000 offending photos, as well as a number of home-made videos featuring under-age girls. It emerged that he had even been covertly recording footage of his step-daughter, Avaya, at times when she was naked.

Having initially faced a large number of charges, however, Jason finally agreed a deal with prosecutors that saw him plead guilty to a much-reduced list of offences in late 2022. As reported by ABC4 Utah at the time, he accepted one count of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor and two misdemeanour counts of voyeurism. When time already served was taken into account, he escaped with a prison sentence of less than a year: he was given 329 days in Salt Lake County Jail and 48 months of supervised probation, per ABC4.

Where is Jason Lytton now?

Reportedly paroled in August 2023, he is registered as a sex offender and now lives in Herriman, Utah, according to records published by the Utah Department of Public Safety.

How much does a Hulu subscription cost?

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